vegetable gardening

Peas

February is still a long way off from the main vegetable-growing season, but there is a lot that can be done in the garden.
It usually pays to make at least two sowings of peas in February – one in the middle of the month and one towards the end. Peas are not the easiest crop [...]

Beans in May

It is still possible to get a frost in early May in many parts of Central Brittany – and a careful watch therefore has to be kept on the weather forecast. On cold nights it is worth making an effort to cover potatoes and other sensitive plants with fleece, newspaper, or anything that comes to [...]

Carrots

Amongst cooks, carrots are probably the most popular vegetable that can be grown in this climate. When freshly picked their taste is incomparable, they store well, they can be used in salads or in a huge variety of cooked dishes, and are even sweet enough to be used in desserts. The two main difficulties in [...]

Dried Beans

Many people who move to Brittany from the UK do not appreciate the full value of beans as a crop. This is because most of the legume crops grown in Britain – broad beans, runner beans, French beans, peas, etc – are eaten fresh, and therefore only have a short season.
In many parts of France, [...]

The Calabash Gourd

This year, I have experimented for the first time with growing the famous Calabash, or Bottle Gourd, pictured right. Apparently, it is one of the oldest crops grown by man, and one of the few crops grown in both the Old and the New World – gourds are believed to have floated over the ocean [...]

Broad Beans

If you have not already done so, now is the time to plant your broad bean seeds. Broad beans are not the easiest or highest yielding crop to grow, but there is something particularly rewarding about starting the sowing calendar now, before the cold weather arrives, and being able to see at least one of [...]

Harvesting Potatoes

Traditionally, people leave the main crop of potatoes in the ground until the autumn, but in my garden, I find that the longer I leave them, the more that I lose to mice. I therefore dig them up once the tops die back, and providing they are reasonably dry, store them in bags in a [...]

Swedes

July is the time to plant swede, or rutabaga as it is known here. I have only had moderate success with it in the past, but it is a much-appreciated vegetable in the winter months, and I therefore intend to try again with it this year. It is a member of the cabbage family, and [...]

Potatoes – Earthing Up

The main concern at this time of yearhas to be potatoes. Everyone has their own ideas about the best time to plant them, but most people would agree that in Brittany all of your crop should be in the ground by the middle of April.
If you have planted early, and the shoots are already above [...]

Protecting Cabbages

Cabbages would be easy to grow if they were’nt so susceptible to so many  pests and diseases. It is important to rotate the cabbage crop – leaving at least two years between cabbage crops in a piece of ground. The main thing at this time of year is to protect the plants from wood pigeons [...]